For one of my home games I've developed a collection of monsters based on the idea of the "gnome effigies" that my rogue frequently picks up in World of Warcraft. 

In the D&D game, the effigies started to appear as an ubiquitous child's toy that was enchanted to speak -- and there were tons of them, being sold all over the city.  My idea has been that these were an 'advanced element' of a joint goblin-fey invasion that was coming.  Now that the invasion has started, and the effigies are fully empowered by the fey magic blah blah blah, I needed a collection different effigy creatures to challenge my party. 

To date I've used a handful of different vaiations on the effigy idea.  In each case, they are a modified version of a MM monster.

Effigy Gnome -- a single, animated stuffed doll, wielding some sort of imrpovised bit of weaponry.  (Based on a koblold Minion)

Effigy Swarm -- a loose pack of effigy gnomes.  (Based on the needlefang drake swarm).

Effigy Golem -- a medium sized golem made up of packed-together effigies.  (based on a Orc Beserker)

Effigy Wave -- A larger version of the swarm idea, this is a large-sized tidal wave of effigies, scrambling over each other in their desperate desire to engulf their targets.  (based on a Gelatinous Cube).

Effigy Dragon -- Packed together in much the same way as the Effigy Golem, this is a dragon made up of packed together effigies.  Because the dragon is the top of any food chain.  This Effigy dragon is also the proxy of the Green Dragon from the feywild that designed the magic that animates the effigies.